Field of the Invention PA1 (a) a flexible first piece having a handle portion and a blade portion; and PA1 (b) a flexible guard piece having at least one hole, said hole being of a size and shape to fit on to said handle.
This invention relates to toy swords. In particular, this invention pertains to a flexible, foam sword with interchangeable foam guards.
Description of the Related Art
There are a wide variety of foam-containing and other types of flexible toy swords or sword-like toy weapons. For example, there are foam swords attached to plastic handles or wooden handles covered with foam, or swords that have internal support elements for the sword blade (U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,303 to Gunther, U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,966 of Miyamoto and U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,087 of Zalkind). The guards are generally attached to the handle base by cementing or screws.
Toy swords on the market which are made of foam are generally made of foam which is hard and brittle and breaks easily, or is very soft and spongy and tears easily. Thus, previous swords are not both firm and indestructible. Swords made of foams that are stiff, or swords that use screws as attachment means, create possible safety hazards for children and may cause eye or other wounds during rough play. Previous foam swords also are generally constructed with one particular type of guard, and do not allow interchanging of different types of sword guards.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a foam sword that is nearly indestructible, but is not dangerous for ordinary or even quite rough play and cannot be torn or chewed easily.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a toy sword which has interchangeable guards.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a foam sword which may be used for training for competitive fencing.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.